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ORANGUTANS
in the wild!
See a s many as 9 primate species,
crocodiles, butterflies and rare birds such as Storms stork. Many
endangered species, even clouded leopards, are hidden in the jungle
or “Rimba”, through which you chug in a ’kelotok’ boat.
You then land and walk 20 minutes into the forest to see the
orangutans at the feeding
stations upriver. You might also take a night safari to see
tarsiers, glowing mushrooms fireflies and perhaps owls.
Hear the plaintive cry of Gibbons, early
birdsong and the resident Macacque monkey troop from your
comfortable room at the Lodge, set right on the edge of the gently
flowing Sekonyer river in light forest.
Orangutans are wholly dependent on trees
for their existence. They are perfectly adapted to life in the
forest - they sleep in nests, feed predominantly on fruit and travel
with ease through the forest canopy, rarely descending to the forest
floor.
Orangutans are almost unique amongst the
primate species. All other apes and monkeys are social and
gregarious, whilst the orangutan is semi solitary,
the largest group being a mother and two offspring. Females are less
solitary and may spend up to 25% of their time with other
orangutans. In contrast, male orangutans will spend less than 9% of
their time in association with other orangutans. Sumatran orangutans
are more social and this social behaviour usually coincides with the
simultaneous fruiting of the fig tree, which doesn't occur in Borneo
.
Courtship lasts between 3-10 days and it
is the female who, not wanting to share her food source, initiates
the final separation. The male has no role in the raising of his
offspring. It is thought that this solitary lifestyle evolved due to
erratic fruiting, leading to competition for food. With a
predominately frugivorous diet, containing relatively few calories
for such a large body size, the orangutan needs to forage for 60% of
the day, with the other 40% spent sleeping and resting.
Orangutans
 are the slowest
breeding of all primates and, at almost eight years, have
the longest inter-birth interval of any land-based mammal. The
female orangutan reaches puberty at ten years and will normally have
her first infant between the age of 12 and 15. Offspring are
dependent on their mothers for at least five years and with a life
expectancy of 45 years plus, females will normally have no more than
three offspring. With these factors combined, the orangutan
population, especially small fragmented populations, are at
considerable risk. They don't have the capacity to recover from
disasters that may strike a population. A slight rise in the adult
female mortality rate by just 1-2% can drive a local population to
extinction.
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